Kamala Harris’ defiant response when challenged on U-turns in historic interview
Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris faced a series of tough questions on Thursday night, in her first sit-down interview since announcing her bid to succeed President Joe Biden. Under tough questioning over her political record, Harris refuted allegations of flip-flopping, telling CNN‘s Dana Bash “my values have not changed.”
Although Vice President Harris had become a frequent stand-in for 81-year-old Biden in recent months during media interviews, since climbing to the top of her party’s ticket, the former prosecutor has come under fire for avoiding lengthy interviews with American TV anchors. But despite Republicans attacking her for being “too scared” to be questioned, Kamala Harris came out of the blocks swinging defiantly.
When asked about former President Donald Trump’s recent comments about how Harris “happened to turn black”, the Democratic candidate for Commander-in-Chief pushed past questions about her rival’s purposefully divisive statement that echoed the Obama-birther conspiracy, also propagated by Trump in the early 2010s. Harris, who would become the US’ first black woman, Jamaican, and South Asian President, said he was relying on the “same old, tired playbook.”
Sitting down with her pick for VP, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris was pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash over changes in her policy positions on issues like fracking and the Green New Deal. She has also been criticised for turning her back on health policies popular with the Democratic base, like the single-payer Medicare-for-All system that she had backed in 2020.
CNN Political Editor Dana Bash pressed Harris, asking: “How should the voters look at some of the changes you have made? Is it because you have more experience now and you have learned more about the information? Is it because you are running for President in the Democratic Primary?”
But the former California prosecutor and Senator avoided the question and instead directed her answer toward the crux of the issue. Defiantly, she said: “The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is that my values have not changed.”
Turning to the criticism she has received over perceived u-turns on environmental policy, Harris came with the receipts for Bash: “I have always believed that the climate crisis is real. That it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time, we did that with the American Inflation Reduction Act.”
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CNN)
Harris continued: “We have set goals for the USA and by extension the globe, about when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for example. That value has not changed.
“My values around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California prosecuting transnational criminal organisations… regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border – my values have not changed.”
But in a move that could frustrate some in her party, Vice President Harris also signalled that she would consider appointing Republicans to her cabinet, as she wanted to be President “for all Americans.”
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VP Harris said: “Yes I would, yes I would… But we’ve got 68 days to go before this election, so let’s not put the cart before the horse.” Though she admitted she had no one in particular in mind.
“I have spent my career inviting a diversity of opinions… I think it would be to the benefit of the American public if there was a member of my Cabinet that was a Republican,” she added.
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CNN)
When President Barack Obama swept to power in 2008 on a campaign calling for hope and change, he made a similar gesture towards the centre of the political aisle and appointed Republicans to his cabinet, while also seeking bipartisan support for his agenda.
This decision would prove to be controversial amongst Democrats, after he struggled to pass key legislation like the health insurance reform known as Obamacare, with bitterly opposed Republican legislators dragging their heels and ultimately shutting down the federal government in an attempt to block it from passing.
